NT NETWORK
PANAJI
Vice-Chancellor of Goa University Prof Varun Sahni on Monday pitched for scientific research as a career and to serve the nation.
Sahni was addressing Class XI students of science stream from various higher secondary schools in the state at the inaugural function of INSPIRE Internship Programme organised by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – National Institute of Oceanography (CSIR – NIO) at the institute in Dona Paula.
He said, “Many of you are studying science because you and your family want you to become doctors and engineers and that is fine… But I hope in the course of the time you are spending at NIO, you realise how important science as a career. One of the best ways you can serve your country.”
He further said that the country’s education system needs to develop the love for science amongst the school students through the academics. “We in the education sector need to rekindle desperately in our system the love and importance for science,” he added.
Through the programme more than 100 students of Class XI will interact with select group of scientists and academicians over a period of five days and will get an opportunity to work alongside the scientists at the NIO laboratories.
While, scientists at the NIO will provide an insight into the different researches that the institute has been undertaking over its long journey of 50 years, students will get an opportunity to visit and interact with scientists at the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research in Vasco-da-Gama.
NIO director Dr Prasanna Kumar, director of Indian Institute of Toxicology Research in Lucknow Prof Alok Dhawan and the programme coordinator Dr Maria-Judith Gonsalves were present at the inaugural function.